Memories of 1995 haunt GOP as shutdown talk grows

President Barack Obama disembarks Air Force One with Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., Wednesday, March 10, 2010, in St. Louis. Obama is in town to make a speech on health care and then appear at a fundraiser for McCaskill.(AP Photo/Tom Gannam) By Tom Gannam

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Few memories haunt Republicans more deeply than the 1995-96 partial shutdown of the federal government, which helped President Bill Clinton reverse his falling fortunes and recast House Republicans as stubborn partisans, not savvy insurgents.

Now, as Congress careens toward a budget impasse, government insiders wonder if another shutdown is imminent -- and whether Republicans again would suffer the most blame.

Leaders of both parties say they are determined to avoid a shutdown. But they have not yielded on the amount of spending cuts they will demand or accept. Meanwhile, shutdown talk is rippling through Washington and beyond.

The Obama administration is warning that workers who handle Social Security benefits might be furloughed. Almost hourly, top Democrats and Republicans accuse each other of pushing the government to the brink by being inflexible.

"So much is at stake if this great government shuts down," said House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi. "I would hope that instead of having ultimatums, we go forward with an approach that talks about how we keep government open."

The House GOP campaign committee said Democrats are "shouting for a shutdown."

For all the political drama and rhetoric, the actual stakes of a shutdown are not so dire for ordinary Americans. The military would stay active, interstate highways would remain open and government checks would be issued, although new applicants for benefits under programs such as Social Security might have their sign-ups delayed.

In fact, the federal government has had more than a dozen "shutdowns" since 1981. Some lasted only hours, and few are remembered.

The exception is the two-stage partial shutdown of 1995 and 1996. Then, as now, a Democratic president clashed over spending priorities with a recently installed Republican House majority. Then, as now, Congress had failed to fund the government for a full fiscal year, so agencies depended on a series of "continuing resolutions" to keep them in businesses while lawmakers feuded.

When Clinton in late 1995 vetoed a Republican-crafted spending bill -- he called it insufficient for Medicare, education and other programs -- parts of the government closed for six days.

After a brief truce, the parties clashed again. Hundreds of thousands of "non-essential" federal workers were furloughed for three weeks, from mid-December to early January. (Some workers eventually received back pay for missed days). National parks, museums, passport offices and other agencies closed.

Both parties blamed the other. But public opinion soon swung toward Clinton and the Democrats. House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., didn't help himself by suggesting he had triggered the shutdown out of pique because Clinton had made him ride in the back of Air Force One. Friends called it the biggest mistake of Gingrich's career.

GOP lore portrays the 1995-96 shutdown as a political disaster. Lawmakers who lived through it have vowed: Never again.

"There's absolutely no way" House Republicans will allow a shutdown, says Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Calif., first elected in 1978. "It was a big mistake when Newt did it."

"There's not going to be one!" echoed Rep. Pete Sessions of Texas, who heads the House GOP's campaign committee.

Some political insiders are not convinced that a new shutdown would play out like the last one, or that Republicans would take nearly all the blame. Public alarm over the federal debt has grown dramatically in the past decade and a half. And Republicans regained control of the House last fall largely because of tea party-affiliated candidates who ran on promises to slash spending.

The latest congressional showdown centers on spending for the current fiscal year, which is one-third over. House Republicans have promised to cut $60 billion from "discretionary non-security" programs. Those programs comprise only 12 percent of the entire budget, and they exclude items such as the military, Social Security and Medicare.

President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats say such cuts would be reckless and damaging. They want to freeze discretionary, non-security spending at current levels for five years. That would slow or halt the typical annual climb, but Republicans say it's not enough.

Both parties say they have given as much ground as possible. If something doesn't change before March 4, when the current funding measure expires, a partial government shutdown could be unavoidable.

The big guessing game in Washington is: Who will blink first? In corridors and offices, they game out possible scenarios.

The Democratic-controlled Senate, which has begun a week-long recess, won't have time before the March 4 deadline to take up the $60 billion cost-cutting bill the House just completed.

In early March, senators will devise a short-term spending proposal likely to reflect the Democrats' demands to hold spending at current levels. Republican senators could thwart it with a filibuster, which probably would trigger a government shutdown.

Some GOP strategists say deficit-weary Americans would blame Democrats for refusing deeper cuts. Democrats say voters would view Republicans as unreasonable obstructionists, as they did 15 years ago. Neither group, however, seems fully confident, and no one knows how much the political ground has shifted since Obama's election.

If Senate Republicans let a Democratic-crafted temporary spending bill reach the House, then a big decision will confront Speaker John Boehner and his sometimes unpredictable, tea party-tinged GOP caucus.

"We're terribly disappointed Speaker Boehner can't control the votes in his conference," Reid said. "They're going to shut down the government."

Boehner repeatedly has said he does not want a government shutdown.

"The only people in this town rooting for a government shutdown are Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid," he said Friday, speaking with reporters a few feet away from a crowded House floor. "There's not one Republican talking about a government shutdown. Our goal is to cut spending."

But it's not clear Boehner can bend his colleagues to his will.

In September 2008, when Republicans controlled the White House and Democrats ran the House, Boehner implored his fellow Republicans to back a $700 billion bailout of the deeply troubled financial system. Two-thirds of them refused, the measure failed, and blue chip stocks immediately lost 7 percent of their value.

Boehner's current Republican caucus is more focused on cutting spending than was the 2008 group.

Many Democratic and Republican lawmakers say it's almost inevitable, and essential, that Obama step in to avert a shutdown. Only a president, they say, has the stature, clout and public megaphone to craft a compromise when congressional partisans seem dug in. And for now, they seem deeply dug in.

At his news conference last week, Obama chastised both parties for even talking about a shutdown.

Federal spending must be tamed, the president said, but "let's use a scalpel. Let's not use a machete. And if we do that, there should be no reason at all for a government shutdown."